Periscope Pointers

1. Know who your competitors are.

2. Use the Internet to research them; your competitors' Web sites will provide a lot of basic information about them, and reveal how they want to be perceived.

3. Your competitors' rates can give you a rough idea of what you own should be.

4. Use clients and other professionals who work in fields related to yours to get information about your competitors.

5. If you're just not the competitive type, try to form friendly collegial relationships with potential competitors. Make colleagues of them.